Neel Kashkari announces his candidacy to a group of business leaders in Sacramento.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Neel Kashkari announces his candidacy to a group of business...

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Neel Kashkari was assistant Treasury secretary under the past two presidents.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Neel Kashkari was assistant Treasury secretary under the past two...

Image 3 of 3

Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari snaps a photo of the crowd with his cellphone after announcing his Republican candidacy for the California governor's office during a meeting of local business leaders in Sacramento, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2014.

Neel Kashkari, a moderate Republican who ran the bailout of financial institutions under the Bush and Obama administrations, jumped into his first-ever political race Tuesday - this year's contest to challenge Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

"Jobs and education. Jobs and education, that's it," Kashkari said of his agenda, in announcing his candidacy before an audience of about 400 business leaders at California State University Sacramento.

"We can give every single kid in California a good education," and the state can "grow the economy," Kashkari said. "We can absolutely do this."

Kashkari said California ranks near the bottom nationally in both employment and school rankings and is "dead last" in terms of its climate for small business.

But "California is No. 1 at something - we have the highest poverty rate in America," he said. "The status quo is unacceptable."

Kashkari, 40, spent several years as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs before former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recruited him for a job under President George W. Bush in 2006. Two years later, he was named to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the federal effort to prevent a meltdown of the financial system by bailing out banks and other financial companies.

'$700 billion man'

Kashkari, nicknamed "the $700 billion man" on Wall Street, stayed in his assistant Treasury secretary's job during the first five months of the Obama administration before returning to the private sector with the investment firm Pimco.

For the past year, he has been laying the groundwork for a gubernatorial campaign, visiting low-income schools, staying overnight in an Oakland homeless shelter and consulting with Republicans such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Swipe at rail plan

Kashkari has said that he will focus on jobs and education during the coming campaign and will generally steer clear of divisive social issues that have become a challenge for GOP candidates in solidly blue California.

On Tuesday, he took a swipe at Brown's plan to spend billions on "the crazy train," a high-speed rail line that would run between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

"It makes no sense," Kashkari said. "We have much more important priorities."

Kashkari is outside the mainstream of current Republican politics - he favors both a woman's access to abortion and same-sex marriage rights - leading some analysts to speculate that he could inject life into a party that trails Democrats in statewide voter registration by double digits.

The only other Republican now in the race is Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks (San Bernardino County), a Tea Party favorite and former member of the anti-illegal-immigration Minutemen group.

Democrats attack

Even before Kashkari formally entered the race Tuesday, Democratic operatives went on the attack, citing a report in The Chronicle that he had not voted in nearly half the elections for which he was eligible since 1998.

Dan Newman, an adviser to Brown, tweeted that Kashkari "skips votes to help schools, his 'top priority.' "

Democrats also sought to compare Kashkari to a string of failed first-time candidates who emerged from the private sector to run for high office, including Republicans Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in 2010.

"Kashkari is shaping up to be just another rich dilettante who wants to be governor, but in the past hasn't even taken the time to vote in gubernatorial elections," said longtime Democratic strategist Garry South. "Voters will find this inexplicable and indefensible, like someone trying to become pastor of a church they seldom attend."